Statements of minister’s PA and accused contradictory: Police

Coimbatore: Gaping holes continue to linger in the kidnapping case of animal husbandry minister Udumalai K Radhakrishnan’s personal assistant M Karnan.

Police have managed to arrest seven people on charges of plotting and kidnapping Karnan. All of them were known to Karnan and one of them was his close acquaintance for a long time.

Police said the statements of both Karnan and the arrested were contradictory.

Police said Karnan had sold a plot of land a few days ago. D Pradeep, an acquaintance of Karnan and one of the arrested in the case, presumed that the latter would have received the money from the land transaction and plotted with other accused to rob the same.

On September 23, when Karnan was at the MLA’s office, Pradeep and another accused Ragu, along with three others, kidnapped him. “They took him to a godown in a farm at Modakkupatti and threatened him to give them Rs 10 lakh,” a police officer said.

When Karnan said he did not have the cash and would get the same, they dropped him near Dhali after snatching away his gold chain and ring, the officer said. “They took his ATM card and withdrew Rs50,000. The pistol that was used to threaten Karnan was a toy gun.”

However, soon after getting freed from the kidnappers, Karnan had said the motive behind is kidnapping was political. “It was for political reasons. They demanded certain information from me,” he told reporters.

Local AIADMK men are also puzzled at the turn of events, since many of them knew Pradeep too. “Why would anyone choose a broad daylight to kidnap a minister’s PA if money was the only motive? Also, being from the same locality, why would the gang risk revealing their identity to Karnan?” asked an AIADMK functionary from Udumalpet.

The arrested in the case include D Pradeep, 39, S Arunkumar, 23, M Surendran, 27, and D Devarajulu, 55, all from Udumalpet in Tirupur district, and R Vinoth, 20, G Selvaganapathi, 23 and S Dhaga, 21, from Pattukottai. Another accused, Ragu, is on the run.

The arrested have been booked under Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 447 (punishment for criminal trespass) of the Indian Penal Code.


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